The animation here is top-notch. Expertly animated by the crew at Bones and Sunrise, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR really delivers. The characters are sharp and vivid, and Kawamoto Toshihiro's character designs look better than ever, and they haven't really changed at all. The new characters, Vincent, Electra and Rashid, look as if they've been members of the BEBOP universe forever.

Yamane Kimitoshi's mechanical designs are given the royal treatment also, as the animation and the sound design give the ships more weight and presence. And each ship: the Bebop, the Swordfish, the Hammerhead and the Redtail, get their moment of high-octane glory.

Action scenes—whether human, mechanical or a combination of the two, are well choreographed and executed flawlessly. The martial arts scenes are some of the most amazing ever to appear on film.

Even mundane things like establishing shots and exteriors have a vividness and a life to them that really makes the animation and art quality of this film stand out.

Musical Wunderkind Kanno Yoko has once again gathered together the enigmatic group called the Seatbelts to perform the music for the BEBOP movie. It is another collection of jazz tunes, with a lot of vocals thrown into the mix. Most of the vocals are in English, which, to an American anime fan can be quite comforting, but then again, it can also be a little bit jarring. After all, when you can understand the lyrics you find yourself listening to them, but sometimes they tend to be a little odd and distracting. Like many of the vocals on the later BEBOP CDs like BLUE, some fans may like them and some may not be crazy about them, but musically they're well-crafted and expertly performed.

This is Sunrise's second big movie in as many years. Unlike ESCAFLOWNE, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR doesn't try to re-tell the story in an "alternate universe" fashion. Instead, it takes the characters we know and love and places them into a (previously) untold adventure that falls between two episodes of the television series.

Some would argue that this is the more sensible of the two choices—give the fans more of what you know they like. Some would say that it's the less bold approach, since it's essentially repeating more of the same. But that's not true.

This movie takes risks. It throws off the conventional wisdom that audiences can only sit still for 90 minutes, as midway through production the film's running time was increased from 90 to 120 minutes.

And most importantly, the film dares to continue to do what the television series did—be consistently high-quality entertainment that straddles several genres at once. In the souvenir program guide the words "Hollywood" and "hard boiled" appear in the same sentence. It's no accident. COWBOY BEBOP is part big-budget Hollywood epic, part Hong Kong action movie, part sci-fi epic, part mystery and yes, even part comedy. It is the skillful blending of all these various genres and elements that have endeared the crew of the Bebop to so many and, ultimately, it is why COWBOY BEBOP: KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR is going to be a film that anime fans will be talking about for a long time.